Kyle and I are in a supper club. We call our supper club “Supper Club.” Supper Club is eight couples (well, now six couples and two singles who are still good friends) who all like to geek out over food.
Each month, Supper Club is hosted at a different couple’s home, and the hosting couple picks the theme and makes the main course. We all rotate the rest of the dishes accordingly. Past themes have included Locavore (a majority of the ingredients needed to be harvested or produced within 100 miles of KC), French, Indian, Vegan and Culinary Costumes, which Kyle and I hosted, complete with a murder mystery in a box and delicious, organic food that looked just like it came from McDonald’s. We even talked our local Mickey Dee’s into giving us some packaging.
We were also really proud of our contribution to the A Night at the Movies-themed Supper Club. Can you guess what movie we were going for with this dessert? (Hint: the cake and ice cream had sarsaparilla and my homemade Kahlua in them).
Anyway, July’s theme was Soviet Bloc Party/Eastern European Cuisine. I was in charge of the salad. Since Kyle is out of town, I did not feel obligated to include meat and ice cream in my Supper Club salad, and I knew I wanted to pickle some shit. Being a great culinary procrastinator, though, by the time Supper Club Sunday rolled around, I had done absolutely nothing to prepare.
So, I looked for some quick pickling recipes, and found this Relish Plate of Homemade Pickles from chef Marc Meyer of Five Points in New York. After a trip to the grocery store, I quickly got to work quick pickling. Just like the recipe instructed, I pickled beets, I pickled carrots, I pickled cauliflower and I pickled radishes. I think it was the closest I’ve ever come to really following a recipe. Then, I got really excited and pickled cucumbers, onions and jalapenos. I put the latter in the fridge for myself to enjoy later, and served the former at Supper Club over a bed of raw cabbage with a drizzle of my take on “Russian” dressing (similar to this recipe).
Photo: Heather Brantman
It was delicious, and bursting with flavors and textures. And I was really glad I went for something light, because my salad was followed up by way too many pierogies and way, way too much vodka. Our hosts managed to find this ridiculous bottle on sale at Gomer’s:
Yes, the onion is also abnormally large.
With Kyle in Wisconsin and one abstaining, six of us miraculously finished every single drop. You can imagine my hangover the next day.
More on that later.
